Kathy Bates: I Want Obama 'To Stand Up on His Hind Legs and Fight These Rat Bastards'

Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates wants President Obama "to stand up on his hind legs and fight these rat bastards."

When asked by the host of CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight to elaborate, Bates said Friday, "I think he has got to indict these guys from Wall Street. Somebody's got pay for that mess" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: What do you make of what's going on now in Washington, President Obama, the whole political shakeup at the moment?

KATHY BATES: Well, you know, I have to kind of go back and say that I -- I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. I grew up in a segregated town. When I went back my first year in college, that spring, I had my first black friend. I wanted to bring her home. And my father said, "Are you crazy? You want to start a race riot?"

And I was like -- I didn't understand it because my parents were from another generation. My dad was born in 1900, my mom in 1907. I came very late in life to them. Long story short, that was the spring that Martin Luther King was slaughtered in my hometown.

Fast forward now to, what is it three -- two years ago, I'm in Paris, I'm on my computer watching these election results, because I've gotten so inspired by this man -- and I'm so apolitical. And for the first time in I don't know how many years, I was just galvanized by this election. It was so emotional to me.

The last two years, I want to go back, something my father said to me -- he always said, "Stand up on your hind legs and fight." And that's what I'd like to say to my president, whom I'm so proud of. But I want him to stand up on his hind legs and fight these rat bastards. And he has got do it.

MORGAN: Who do you mean by the rat bastards?

BATES: Well, I think he's got to indict these guys from Wall Street. Somebody's got pay for that mess. And I don't think it's the American public.

MORGAN: Because you believe that basically that was the catalyst for all the problems that are going on now?

BATES: I think it was the catalyst for many. It certainly was the catalyst for our loss of faith.

MORGAN: It does seem extraordinary not one of them has ever been put in jail. Not one. The biggest financial crisis in history. It came out of pure greed and wanton irresponsibility and nobody has ever carried the can.

BATES: Well, and it's is like Steinbeck said in "Grapes of Wrath," who's the bank? When everybody was losing everything, who is behind all of this? Who's really running the country? Who's really pulling the strings?

And I think we have all lost faith. And we don't know what to do. And there are no jobs. And we are looking at a lineup, in my opinion, of Republicans like --

MORGAN: Do you feel alarmed by what you see?

BATES: I do. I do feel alarmed for the country.

MORGAN: When you see the Tea Party who are very polarizing, but they're increasingly popular. When you see the Tea Party candidates and the views that they espouse, what do you think?

BATES: I don't espouse their views. I'm not that conservative. I do feel -- I guess I'm more of a Democrat at heart, although I've never affiliated myself with a particular party.

Given that Bates called Rush Limbaugh a drug addict on her television program earlier this year, "Democrat at heart" about covers it.

Also of note is how the Left always blames America's current condition on Wall Street without ever acknowledging the Clinton era pieces of legislation that deregulated banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and financial derivatives thereby enabling the housing and credit bubbles that lead to the eventual collapse.

I know that's asking too much.

Forgive me.

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